This time last year, Mike White was still at Louisiana Tech and more than a month away from taking the UF job. This year, he has a full offseason with the Gators.
White, Gators Enter First Full Offseason Together
Thursday, March 24, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — This time a year ago, the Florida basketball program was picking up the pieces, assessing the damage and evaluating the culture that led to the first losing season in 17 years. Changes were coming, but few figured those changes would echo across the collegiate landscape and, of course, onto the NBA.
The 2016 Gators offseason won't have the seismic drama of the 2015 version. That much we know. But Mike White isn't pounding his chest over a 21-15 season that ended in the National Invitational Tournament, either. Instead, White and his staff now have a baseline from which to operate; a foundation from which to build.
The bridge from the Billy Donovan era is now complete.
Now, it's White's turn to assess the program and evaluate the culture. This time, he has a full offseason to get stuff done without the getting-to-know-you phase. He didn't waste any time, either, starting exit meeting with players Thursday.
"We're in a better place today than we were on March 24 of last year when we were having the same conversations with our players at Louisiana Tech — then working them out for a month," White said Thursday night. "Now, that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to be better. We're further along, but we have a lot of work to do."
On paper, the Gators lose two seniors in forward Dorian Finney-Smith, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, and forward Alex Murphy, who played only 23 minutes over three games after suffering a foot injury back in November.
That leaves 11 scholarship players on the roster, plus two incoming freshmen — 6-foot-3 guard Eric Hester and 6-10 forward Dontay Bassett, a couple raw prospects from Oldsmar (Fla.) Christian near Tampa — projected to next season.
Rosters heading into an offseason, though, are rarely the same heading into the actual season. Attrition is part of college athletics, but a nucleus of Kasey Hill, KeVaughn Allen and Chris Chiozza in the backcourt, plus John Egbunu, Kevarrius Hayes and Justin Leon is where the Gators figure to start. Forward Devin Robinson, who had an up-and-down sophomore season but is still viewed as a high-ceiling pro prospect, is expected to test the NBA waters (especially with new rules that allow players to put their name in for early entry, work out for the pros and return to school, if they choose). Some other UF players could opt to explore transfer opportunities. White already is on record saying the Gators could be active in the graduate-transfer market for players who could show up in the summer and be eligible to play next season.
Consider April and May the fluidity season.
The only thing certain is that White and his assistants will take what they made from this season and spin it forward to what they can make of the next. While some foundation of the White program has been set, the next phase of its overall growth figures to be an across-the-board commitment to how the Gators play defensively -- that facet of their play waned down the stretch -- and the search for players who fit the all-out pressing, 94-foot, 3-point bombing style of player he ran at LA Tech and caught the attention of the Florida brass after Donovan left.
"I think there are a lot of positives," White said. "And some of these guys may have some decisions to make, of course."
Hustling freshman Kevarrius Hayes (13) averaged 2.8 points and 2.6 points during the regular season, but scored 14 points in each of the last two NIT games and figures prominently in Florida's plans for next season and beyond.
The brightest moments of the GW game came courtesy of guard KeVaughn Allen and center Kevarrius Hayes, two freshmen who loom as cornerstones for the next several seasons.
Allen, who was second on the team in scoring at 11.6 per game, had 22 points against the Colonials to finish with 418 on the season, making him the first UF freshman to eclipse the 400-point threshold since Bradley Beal totaled 546 in the one-and-done 2011-12 season he parlayed into being the third overall pick in the NBA draft. Simply put, Allen has a chance to be one of the most explosive scorers in UF history. The 6-foot-9 Hayes was the team's backup center for the bulk of the season before being pressed into starting duty following surgery to Egbunu last week. In NIT two starts, Hayes totaled 28 points and nine rebounds, hit 11 of his 12 field-goal attempts and averaged 31 minutes on the floor after averaging just 11.5 minutes for the season.
That's a nice high-low starting point for the future, assuming both Allen and Hayes take the experience garnered from the season — the good and the bad — and the extra run through the NIT and use it as a springboard into the offseason.
"They need to. That's the challenge," White said. "They're the future. Other guys are as well."
Like Keith Stone, the 6-8 forward from Deerfield Beach, Fla., who on the advice of the staff — knowing Finney-Smith would get the overwhelming minutes at the power forward position — took a redshirt season to build his body, develop his skills and mature as a person. Stone reshaped his frame, trading body fat for muscle, improved an already good stroke (he can hits 3s) and worked on his inside game. He had some moments on the scout team this season, but that's not the same as the real thing.
"I expect bring things from him down the road," White said. "Sooner, hopefully, rather than later."
Those three (Allen, Hayes and Stone) make up a 2015 class that looks like the best, by far, signed by the program over the current four-year cycle.
Hill, the junior and former McDonald's All-American, played the finest basketball of his career the last month of the season after making a new-found commitment to putting in extra work in the gym on his own time. Hill was UF's best player through most of the postseason, but will be the first to say he still needs to work on his shot, his finishes and free throws. Egbunu, the 6-11, 255-pound sophomore, has a long road ahead in his rehabilitation from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right (and shooting) thumb, but there will be elements to his game he can work on in the interim. Egbunu, who averaged 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds over the season, actually had some of his most efficient games in the postseason while wearing a brace on his hand.
Robinson, at 9.0 points and 5.6 rebounds for the year, showed flashes during the season, hitting double-figure scoring in 11 of his first 14 games, and proved to be a decent 3-point shooter as well (34 percent). At his height and length (the very things that make him an intriguing pro prospect), Robinson should be a more productive rebounder and he sometimes struggles on the defensive end. If he were to return and put in a strong offseason in the gym and weight room, Robinson would be a candidate for a huge jump in his overall play, but the lure of the pro game will be there.
Chiozza, the sophomore point guard who traded starting roles with Hill during the year, improved as a shooter and especially from the free-throw line (47 percent as a freshman to 79.7 this season). He had some tough games late in the season, but still finished with a team-high 156 assists to just 65 turnovers. He just needs to keep tracking upward.
To say that Leon, the lone addition by the White staff, was a pleasant surprise would not do the junior-college transfer justice. He shot 49 percent from the floor and a team-best 37.3 from distance, all the while playing with a constant motor. He'll be a major factor as a senior.
"I'm sorry this season is over, I am," Leon said. "But I'm already looking forward to next season."
Junior DeVon Walker (1.6 points, 1.7 rebounds per game) and freshman Brandone Francis-Ramirez (2.0 ppg) saw their minutes significantly diminished as the season went on. Sophomore center Schuyler Rimmer (1.4 points, 1.2 rebounds per game), the walk-on transfer from Stanford who was put on scholarship for the second semester, was pressed into more duty with the injury to Egbunu. He could return to walk-on status in the fall.
Whatn roles are in store for the incoming freshmen, Hester and Bassett, are uncertain. Sort of like some facets of the UF offseason as a whole.
Much can (and will) happen in the coming months.
"This season was good from the standpoint that we improved in some areas throughout the year, gained experience and finished strong," White said. "But a season is never a success at the University of Florida when you don't make the NCAA Tournament. So we have work to do."
